Breakthrough is the hexagram of decisive removal — five strong lines closing on a single yielding one at the top. It is favourable, and it is also the text's most careful treatment of how force goes wrong.
The structure: Lake over Heaven
Heaven below, the lake above. Strength rising toward something that has lost its support. The image is of pressure that no longer needs to be applied — it is already sufficient.
The Judgment
Breakthrough. One must resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king. It must be announced truthfully. Danger. It is necessary to notify one's own city. It does not further to resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something.
The prohibition is the striking part: it does not further to resort to arms. The hexagram of decisive action explicitly rules out force, and offers publicity instead — make it known, announce it truthfully.
The Image
The lake has risen up to heaven: the image of Breakthrough. Thus the superior man dispenses riches downward and refrains from resting on his virtue.
The instruction is to let the surplus go rather than accumulate it. Breakthrough is released pressure, and holding on to what is released reverses the movement.
The lines
- Line 1 — Mighty in the forward-striding toes. When one goes and is not equal to the task, one makes a mistake.
- Line 2 — A cry of alarm. Arms at evening and at night. Fear nothing.
- Line 3 — To be powerful in the cheekbones brings misfortune. The superior man is firmly resolved.
- Line 4 — There is no skin on his thighs, and walking comes hard.
- Line 5 — In dealing with weeds, firm resolution is necessary. Walking in the middle remains free of blame.
- Line 6 — No cry. In the end misfortune comes.
The interesting failure across these lines is display. Line 3 is powerful in the cheekbones — visible determination — and is called misfortunate. Line 6 makes no cry and is still overcome.
Why force is excluded
The structural reason is that the outcome is not in doubt. Five against one does not require violence, and using it converts a removal into a conflict that has to be won repeatedly.
That is the practical reading: when a situation is genuinely ready to be resolved, the remaining work is announcement, not escalation.
Weeds and resolution
Line 5 uses an agricultural image — dealing with weeds requires firm resolution — which places this hexagram closer to maintenance than to battle. What is being removed is something that was never meant to be there.